Sunday, February 24, 2013

Oscar Sunday and the LA Travel Show

The weather here has been a bit chilly the past few weeks. Those of you with school-aged children know that the flu has been running rampant, too. Josie has been down with a wicked cough, sore throat and slight fever for the past three days. Thankfully, she had a flu shot in the Fall - which means we skipped the vomiting and really high fever - but it's never easy to watch the little one suffer with glassy eyes and red nose. We all needed to get out of the house and have a bit of fun.

Today was our second time visiting the LA Times Travel Show. Last year was the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, so there were a lot of exhibits and presentations that featured Ireland. This year lacked that central theme, but was really entertaining just the same. Being on the West Coast, this show is heavily populated by Asian and Australian tour companies... shorter flights than from the East Coast. I saw only a few European and African entities represented, but those that participated did so in a grand manner.

We kind of took the fast lane through the show - we wanted to be out of LA before the traffic for the Oscars began. Although the LA Convention Center and Hollywood are in different parts of the city, the traffic is terrible to start with... huge pretzel knots of off-ramps and intersections with the worse drivers I've ever encountered. We were there when the show opened at 10AM and we left just as Actor/Travel Writer Andrew McCarthy was taking the stage as a featured speaker at 1PM.

One presentation that we did sit down for was the Wilderness Escapes wildlife show. Here's a bit of what we saw there:

California Red Tail Hawk

Fennec Fox - native of North Africa

This is what the Fennec Fox looks like at about 3 months old!

Full grown hedgehog

A majestic Grey Owl

These cute characters appeared courtesy of Korea Tourist Bureau

Taiwan was well represented

And now, losing weight can be a vacation!

And finally, our favorite exhibitor was the Island of Fiji - a lot of their private resorts had booths and even provided entertainment:

I'm finishing this post just in time to watch the Oscar Red Carpet. Maddie and I usually enjoy watching this event together - I imagine that she and her friends in the dorm will be watching this evening. Josie and I are making popcorn and settling in for the long broadcast.

In preparation for the Oscar broadcast, James and I watched ARGO last night. (It was ON Demand already for $4.99!) It was fantastic. I had get up and walk around the room a bit as the more suspenseful bits unfolded - I guess that's a good sign that the film was realistic enough to make me nervous! I hope Ben & Co. win a few awards tonight.

We are STILL without a kitchen. The drywall and painting was finished a week ago Thursday. Our contractor made an error on the original estimate for the cabinets, so we were in a holding pattern for two weeks while the revised estimate was submitted and approved by our insurance company. I selected the replacement granite two weeks ago, so I guess now its just a matter of getting the cabinets made and installed. Today marks DAY 68 of the kitchen project, which was slated to be 45 days long. Needless to say, we've grown tired of microwaved food and take-out. Maddie comes home for Spring Break on Friday (March 1) and I won't be able to make a birthday dinner for her. ;-(

About Me

I'm Michele - East Coast born & bred. Married to a native Californian, Mom to two East Coast daughters. When a new job opportunity came up, I told my darling husband, - "You'll have to drag me to California, Kicking and Screaming". And so began our newest adventure...
This blog documents our move from the beautiful Virginia countryside to Southern Orange County, California.